


tonight the foxes hunt the hounds

by strangewolfe (orphan_account)



Category: Jurassic World (2015), Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other, but you better believe it's going to be bad, i don't know what the fuck i'm doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-03 23:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5310725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/strangewolfe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>he didn't count on being chased by monstrous dinosaur hybrids, saving the goddamn island, and getting a girlfriend on the same day.</p><p>just another day at jurassic world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. family problems and the bone zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> josh lets his sisters down, and chris has shitty friends.

Bethany Washington loves dinosaurs.

So it's absolutely no surprise to her older twin sister, Hannah, ("It's only by five minutes!" "Yeah, but it's still five minutes!") that Beth is practically  _vibrating_ with excitement during the car ride to the park. She can hardly get a word in as Beth rambles on and on about this dinosaur, or that dinosaur, and her speculations about how the new park will differ from the old one. Hannah can only nod and agree before her sister's off, chattering about a new subject.

Reaching the airport offers a brief few minutes of solemn silence from Beth as their parents turn to them, fake smiles plastered wide on their faces. "I'm so jealous," Melinda Washington sighs out, placing a hand on Beth's shoulder. "You're gonna have so much fun!" Mrs Washington moves forward to hug the younger twin, and Beth hugs back as they exchange muffled "I love you"s. "Listen to your brother, okay?" their mother says, giving them both stern glances as she pulls away from Beth. "And  _call me_ , all right?"

"Yes, Mom," Beth says blandly.

Mrs Washington smiles, genuine this time. "Okay, now, go on! And remember, if something chases you . . .  _run_."

And they head off, grinning.

On the plane, (which is filled with people, oh god) Hannah rubs the butterfly tattoo on her shoulder self-consciously, recalling how insistent Beth was that she wear something sleeveless. The youngest Washington herself is wearing one of her favorite beanies (it's quite the nice shade of cream) from her endless beanie collection. Most of them happen to be gifts from Josh, aka Overprotective Big Brother. The guy makes seven figures a year with his job at the park, and doesn't forget to send them presents that verge on the edge of  _alarmingly expensive_ for their birthdays.

Finally, they reach the park, and even Hannah's visibly awed, but it's mostly because a tall guy built like a tank is waiting for them, introducing himself simply as Matt, their brother's assistant. _  
_

"Your brother arranged to meet you at one," he informs them, and Hannah tries to squash down the disappointment rising up inside her. " _Can she slow down?_ " he demands, following Beth's excited footsteps. She looks like she's about to have a heart attack, what with her eyes and head turning every way in an attempt to take the sights in.

"I'm afraid not," Hannah replies with an apologetic smile as Beth calls out impatiently, "Come on!"

"Your brother got you VIP access, so you don't have to wait in line for all the rides," Matt says once they reach their hotel room, huffing at the exertion of lugging all their clothes and stuff inside like a lean, mean, baggage-carrying machine.

That was horrible, and Hannah is ashamed of herself.

"Let's go," Beth pleads, jumping around as if unable to hold her excitement in.

"We have to wait," Hannah replies placidly.

"I don't wanna wait anymore!" she cries out, rushing towards the window and taking in the sight that is Jurassic World.

In the background, there's a tired groan. _What the hell did I get into?_ Matt thinks, sighing as he places a hand on his forehead.

* * *

The elevator rises slowly, and the tapping of mildly impractical shoes reverberates against the glass walls.

"Hal Osterley, vice president. Jim Drucker, bad hair. Erica Brand, deserves better," he drones quietly to himself, smoothing down his unwrinkled clothing, running a hand through his short, would-be-wonderfully-curly-if-it-had-only-been-allowed-to-grow-to-full-length hair. "Hal, Jim, Erica, Hal, Jim, Erica. And I am Josh Washington." _Adopted son of Bob and Melinda Washington_ , that annoying little voice in his head croons.  _Also the loving brother to Bethany and Hannah Washington_ , he shoots back at it, checking his watch. "Three minutes late," he notes with a sigh.

"Welcome to Jurassic World."

God, that line sounded  _so_ much cooler in his head.

"While year over year, revenue continues to climb, operating costs are higher than ever," Josh says, leading Hal, Jim, Erica around with a brisk stride. "Our shareholders have been patient, but let's be honest, no one is impressed by a dinosaur anymore. Twenty years ago, de-extinction was right up there with magic. These days, kids look at a _Stegasaurus_ like an elephant from the city zoo. That doesn't mean asset development is falling behind. Our advances in gene splicing have opened up a whole new frontier. We've learned more from the past decade than in a century of digging up bones. So . . ." He turns to Hal, Jim, Erica. "When you say you want to sponsor an attraction, what do you have in mind?"

A third of Hal, Jim, Erica says, "We want to be thrilled."

Josh smiles. "Don't we all?" He stops for a moment, glancing over at them, before continuing. "The _Indominus Rex_. Our first genetically modified hybrid."

A different third of Hal, Jim, Erica asks, "How did you get two different dinosaurs to, you know . . . ?"

"Oh, the  _Indominus_ wasn't bred," the voice of Dr Henry Wu says from behind them. Hal, Jim, Erica turn around, so in sync that Josh is utterly convinced that they are part of a single unit, called Hal, Jim, Erica. HJE for short, if you're particularly lazy. "She was designed," Dr Wu continues. "She will be fifty feet long when fully grown, bigger than the  _T. Rex_." He smiles, pleased, satisfied. "Every time we've unveiled a new asset, attendance has spiked. Global news coverage, celebrity visitors, eyes of the world."

"When will she be ready?"

Dr Wu's smile widens. "She already is."

* * *

Hal, Jim, Erica seem to approve, and Josh leaves with the satisfying certainty of knowing that the deal had been made. As he descends the stairs, his eyes catch sight of a familiar-looking beanie. That only serves to brighten his day further.

"Beth, Hannah, is that you?" he calls out.

"Josh!" Beth yelps, rushing forward to hug him. He's glad he didn't wait around getting down the stairs, or he might have fallen over.

"Christ, look at you, it's been _years_ ," he says, pulling Beth at arm's length to scrutinize her. "I see you've already got your wristbands," he comments, slipping them an envelope, "and this is for food, and Matt here is going to take  _great_ care of you, aren't you?" He looks up to stare pleadingly at Matt.

His assistant, bless his heart, nods and smiles. If he wasn't getting married already to that girl, Emily, Josh would have proposed to him on the spot.

"You're not coming with us?" Hannah asks, sounding disappointed and hurt and betrayed. His  _heart_ , for god's sake.

"I'm really sorry, but tomorrow"—insert dramatic pause—"I can take you to the control room . . . show you behind the scenes. That's cool, right?" He glances hopefully at them, and his heart breaks again at the somber expressions on the twins' faces. "Um, all right, so I'll see you tonight at . . . six?" He looks over at Matt.

"No, no, no, don't forget the—"

"Right, right, of course, I will see you at eight, I  _promise_." He pauses and squints at them. "No, wait, you're probably asleep by that time, aren't you? And if you're not . . . "

"We're not five, Josh, Jesus Christ," Beth grumbles, rolling her eyes. "Eight is fine."

Aw. His sisters. So brave and independent. "Okay, fine, so have fun, and take  _very_ good care of them," he adds, shooting Matt a glare and receiving a goodnatured eyeroll in return.

* * *

Chris and Ashley started working at Jurassic World at the around same time, which was about a few years back. In that time, they had been fairly polite and friendly to each other, never inclined to have more than a small  _how-are-you-I'm-fine-thank-you_ chat before diligently getting back to work. (if they don't, their Operations Manager would kill them)

Until, one fateful day, Ashley walked in wearing a Star Wars T-shirt.

Through the magic of movies, they became close friends, even beginning to hang out together outside of work. They shared many amusing and happy memories, arguing valiantly about this move or that TV show or which actor is dating which model and so on and so on.

He began having a crush on her about a year ago. They were just having their usual friendly banter when he suddenly realized _holy shit, she's cute_. Needless to say, upon that fateful discovery, he stared at her for a good long while, enough to make her worried about him and ask what was wrong. "No, no," he'd said, (he remembers it vividly like it was yesterday, goddammit) waving her concern away with a goofy grin, an "I'm fine, Ash. Really," and a hurried comment about Daniel Radcliffe.

And now he's sitting a few feet away from her, trying to focus on work instead of staring longingly at Ashley as Operations Manager Joshua Washington strolls in like he owns the place. (he does, in a way, as he pretty much runs the entire park by himself, but Chris isn't about to get caught up in the technicalities)

"What's the live count?" he asks, and Ashley dutifully recites numbers.

Josh is a strange character, wildly underestimated by many of the staff. He's all business, and running the park in the most successful way possible is his eternal goal. He's often disliked for his cold, detached way of dealing with things, including the dinosaurs, and, in all honesty, Chris gets it. It's better for one's emotional health to not to get attached to things that are alive, that might die at any second, so that you won't have to suffer the heartbreak that comes with it. He once had a dog, in fact.

Once.

He's totally not defending Josh because he's his bro, certainly not. Their friendship's kind of weird, brought on by necessity rather than choice (Masrani told Josh, and here he quotes, "Go make some friends.") but it turned out fairly well. Unfortunately, he now has to deal with Josh teasing him about Ashley, sighing about unrequited love and how he'll always be in the friend zone instead of the bone zone (who the goddamn fuck says that?) if he keeps this up. God, Josh, the friend zone only exists for cishet white men to whine about being a Nice Guy and deserving to get the girl for once. His mom and Ashley didn't raise him to be that type of man, no sir, and if Ash doesn't like him back, he'll deal with it like a mature person and not pursue the auburn-haired, beanie-wearing girl anymore and try to be friends instead.

Unless, you know, Ash finds it uncomfortable to continue their friendship, in which case he'll happily resign himself to acquaintanceship, because he's actually nice.

"Chris? Christopher Beale? Are you awake?"

He snaps back to reality at the sound of Josh's voice. He looks up from Ashley to the Operations Manager, and is loathe to find that he has a smug smirk on his face. The smirk, however, fades as soon as Chris comes back down to earth.

"If you don't mind tearing your gaze away from Miss Jones, could you please tell me what the hell you're wearing?"

He glances down at his shirt.

Oh.

_Oh._

Perhaps he shouldn't have worn this Jurassic Park shirt to work.

"This? Oh, I got it on eBay, it's pretty cool," he raves frantically, trying to conserve his dignity. "I bought it for $150, but the mint condition ones go for $300—"

"Please don't wear it again."

"Right, right," Chris mutters, turning back to his desk.

"Did you close the deal?" Thank god for Ashley, providing distractions for hapless nerds.

"Looks like it," Josh replies, satisfaction lacing his tone. " _Verizon Wireless_ presents the _Indominus Rex_."

"God, that sounds awful," Chris says, unable to stop himself. "Why not just let the corporations name the dinosaurs, you know, why stop there?"

"Why are the West Plains closed?" Josh asks, ignoring Chris's ranting like the wonderful, mature person he is.

"Another Pachy roaming outside his zone," Ashley explains. "But he's fully sedated and ready for relocation," she adds, talking over Chris's muttered, "Pepsi-saurus, or Tostito-don."

Josh lets out a sigh. "Security said the fences were a no-fail. That's the second time this month," he growls in frustration.

"The Pachys short out their implants when they butt heads," Ashley explains patiently.

"How much longer 'til they get him out of there?"

"He just got five milligrams of carfentanil."

"Yes, he's very stoned," Chris cuts in, unable to resist yet again. He's going to hell for this.

"Your workspace could be more organized, you know. It's chaotic," Josh _I-Am-An-Asshole_  Washington observes, (so that's how we're going to play this game, hm, Washington?) glancing in distaste at the various dinosaur figurines on his desk.

Chris huffs and straightens his glasses. "I'd like to think it's more of a living system—hey! What—" He blinks several times in rapid succession as Josh steps forward and moves his trash bin to his side. He turns, indignant, to ask him what the hell he's doing, when his arm brushes against his drink and it falls.

_Straight into the goddamn trash bin._

How.

How did he  _know_.

He turns to Ash with confusion in his eyes, his expression becoming hurt when he notices she's trying not to laugh. "Traitor," he mutters darkly, roughly pulling his drink out of the trash bin and mournfully watching Josh leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know what the hell i'm doing. if you want, you can yell at me on tumblr. it's strangewolfe, as usual.


	2. i'm not passive, but aggressive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> take note, it's not impressive.
> 
> or: sam has a last name, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I CLOSED THE FUCKING TAB THE FIRST TIME AROUND KILL ME NOW
> 
> anyway. i edited and added to the first chapter because i am an indecisive dork and i am nEVER satisfied.
> 
> BUT SERIOUSLY I'D DONE SO MUCH WHY

Josh ducks his head under the helicopter, swinging himself inside with a bunch of papers on his lap, before immediately debating upon whether or not he should  _get out right now_.

"Josh," the eighth-richest man in the world, the owner of Jurassic World, greets him cordially from the pilot's seat. He looks happy, cheerful, even, which directly contrasts with the pure terror running through Josh's veins.

"Mr Masrani," Josh says, trying not to look as if he's fearing for his life. "You're . . . flying."

"I got my license," he says, sounding miffed.

"Two more days," his instructor corrects. Josh can see his own expression on the man's face, and he feels infinitely sorry for him and himself.

"Well, two more days," Masrani concedes, clearly under the impression that "two days" is so short it's practically  _now_. "So, how's my park doing?" he inquires pleasantly, fiddling (that is the correct, exact,  _scientific_ term, it is, fiddling) with the controls. Oh, god, they're all going to die.

"Um, uh, we're up two and a half percent over last year," Josh answers, attempting to keep his voice steady. "It's a bit lower than our initial prediction—"

"No, no, no," Masrani cuts him off impatiently, "how's it  _doing_?"

That . . . wasn't he just . . . he was . . .

"Are the guests having fun? Are the animals enjoying life?"

Oh. _That clears absolutely nothing up._

"Guest satisfaction is steady, in the low 90s," Josh answers, going along with it like he always does. "We don't have a way to measure the animals' emotional experience, but—"

"Sure you do," he disagrees, "you can see it in their eyes, can't you?" He turns around to stare at Josh. " _Right?_ "

_Um, no_. "Right, yes, of course," Josh replies desperately, silently pleading that he turn his attention back to the controls.

Masrani laughs, loud and mirthful. "Okay, now, show me my new dinosaur!" He focuses on the controls, to Josh's relief, and then to his horror as the helicopter balks. "Got it!" Masrani reassures them, which isn't very reassuring at all. "Got it, got it."

* * *

The moment the helicopter touches down on the ground, Masrani's instructor leaps out, scrambles toward a nearby bush, and empties the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

"Oh my god," Josh exclaims frantically, torn between following his boss and checking on his boss's instructor. "Is he okay?  _Are you okay!?_ "

"He's just being dramatic," Masrani states dismissively, glancing up at the full height of the paddock's walls with a frown. "Are you still building?"

Josh steps over the uneven ground, expertly maneuvering his mildly impractical shoes to Masrani's side. "We planned to open in May, but Asset Containment insisted we build the walls up higher." He glances at Masrani and sees his own nervousness reflected in the older man's face. "She's . . . bigger than we expected," he clarifies.

"It's a good sign," he replies, sounding somewhat uncomfortable.

"We hit a few speed bumps early on," Josh goes on to say as they ascend the walls, soon reaching the room overlooking the paddock. "She began to anticipate where the food would come from. One of the handlers nearly lost an arm, and the others threatened to quit if I couldn't guarantee their safety," he states matter-of-factly. He doesn't blame them. He'd get cold feet too if he'd been told that one of them had nearly died by the animal they were tasked with caring for.

"She's intelligent, then?"

"For a dinosaur."

"And that . . . ?"

Josh grimaces at the cracked glass in front of him and tries to give Masrani a confident smile. "She tried to break the glass."

"Hm. I like her spirit," he says, more to himself than to Josh.

Silence reigns over the room as they both try to catch a glimpse of the  _Indominus Rex_ through the wild vegetation of the small paddock. Josh doesn't know why, but he feels inexplicably terrified of this strange, unnatural creature. Something about her just screams  _not right! not right!_ but he shoves the thoughts away, dismissing them as a natural, if not _childish_ fear of creatures with sharp teeth and claws. Everyone's afraid of those, right? Natural human instinct or something.

Something in the forest  _moves_. "She's white," Masrani says reverentially, stepping closer to the glass. "You never told me she was white."

Josh glances at the awestruck man. "Do you think she'll scare the kids?"

"The kids?" he echoes, leaning forward. "This will give the parents nightmares."

"Is . . . is that good?"

"It's _fantastic_. Can she see us?"

"They say she can sense thermal radiation," Josh answers, "like snakes." That had been news to him. Then again, he hadn't shown the most interest in animals when he was younger.

"I thought there were two of them," Masrani says, frowning.

"There _was_ a sibling in case this one didn't survive infancy."

"Where is the sibling?"

_Ahaha, about that._ "She ate her." He catches the briefest flash of uncertainty in Masrani's eyes.  _Same, dude, same._

"So the paddock . . . it's quite safe, then?"

"We have the best structural engineers in the world," Josh assures him, sounding more confident than he felt.

"Yeah, so did Hammond."

_Now, was it really, truly necessary for you to say that? Honestly._

"There's an American Navy woman here."

_Oh god._

"She's part of a research program one of my companies is running."

_Please no._

"Samantha Leroy."

_Fuck._

"I know who she is," Josh says, carefully making his voice sound blank.

"Her animals often try to escape. They are smart. She must be smarter."

"She only thinks she's smarter," he can't help muttering, avoiding the curious glance Masrani gives him. Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck _fuck_.

"I want you to bring her in."

_Oh, fuck that, why?_

"Let her inspect the paddock. Maybe she'll see something we can't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't get used to me updating daily, please. for your sakes. i care about you. am i screaming into an empty void here? that, i don't care about. you're all beautiful, potentially nonexistent followers of this shitty fic.
> 
> i'm (also) strangewolfe on tumblr.


	3. sam, blue, charlie, delta, echo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> vic hoskins is a bastard, sam feels homicidal, and jessica nearly gets eaten by raptors.

"Hold!"

Four raptors halt in their tracks, raising their graceful, reptilian heads from the now-gone pig they were chasing to the woman standing above them on the catwalk. One of the raptors, dark tigerlike stripes running down her forest green back, snaps at another, sandy colored raptor, and she responds with a bloodcurdling snarl and closes her teeth on empty air, a warning hanging ominously in the air.

"Hey!"

Four heads turn back to the woman, spat forgotten.

"Okay! Eyes on me," she commands, and the raptors lift their heads higher to stare at her. "Blue? Blue! Watch it!"

The oldest raptor, twin blue stripes running down from the corner of her eyes to her flanks, turns her scornful, predatory gaze from one of her sisters back to the woman. The raptors continue snapping at each other, stopping quickly whenever the woman tells them to.

"Good! And we're moving!" The woman, her blond hair falling out of her ponytail, and tiny droplets of sweat sliding down her forehead, moves across the catwalk, clicker raised above her head. The raptors obediently move, their gaze locked on the woman, their leader, their alpha, and then she says, "Hold!" and they stop moving. "Good," the woman says, a small smile curling her lip and satisfaction in her tone, "that is damn good." She chooses a strip of meat from the bucket at her side and tosses it, calling, "See, Charlie, that's what you get!" to a dark green raptor with bluish stripes, and she snaps up the meat. "Echo, there you go!" The sandy hued raptor. "Delta!" The black-striped raptor. "Blue?"

The blue-striped beta cocks her head expectantly as the woman picks up a dead rat from her bucket.

"This is for you."

She throws the rat down, and Blue catches it, swallowing it in one bite.

"Hold! Eyes up!"

The raptors hold their positions until the woman says, "Go," and then they scamper back into the undergrowth.

Applause tears through the air, and the woman turns, proud, accomplished.

A dark-haired man, stubble on his chin, walks over, chuckling in amazement. "You finally did it, man," he says, impressed. She opens her mouth to thank him, but another voice distracts her.

"Samantha."

"Hoskins." She turns, scowling, to face a plump man with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. She grumpily watches the dark-haired man, Mike, walk away.  _Traitor_. How dare he leave her alone to face this . . . this  _pig_? The word pig forces her to hide an amused smile, thinking about how  _fun_ it would be to set the raptors loose on Hoskins.

"I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys," he says, "but damn, you got them eating out of your palm."

 _Hardly_ , she thinks distastefully. "You came on a good day," she says, walking away. "It's not usually a happy ending."

"Is that why you're not sending in your reports?" He's following her, goddammit.

"We've been busy."

"Not too busy to cash in your paychecks," Hoskins scoffs.

A sardonic smile curls her lip, and she turns to face him. "What do you need, _buddy_?" she asks, not making an effort to keep the venom out of her voice.

"A field test."

Sam scowls and turns her back on him, picking up speed.

"Hey, I've just seen them respond to commands!" he protests. "We need to take the research and get it on its feet!"

"These are wild animals, Hoskins," she says coldly, refusing to look at him, "trust me, you don't want them in the field."

He overtakes her and blocks her path, and she lets a growl escape her throat.

"I just saw a bond. A real bond," he insists, ignoring her snarling face, "between man and beast."

"You're in my way," she growls, and he moves backward to let her pass.

"Come on, we're the same."

_Not likely._

"We're dogs of war. We  _know_ that the military needs to reduce casualties," he persists, trying and failing to walk beside her on the narrow catwalk. "Some people think robots are the future, but look, nature gave us the most effective killing machines 75 million years ago, and now we know they can take orders."

"We finally make progress, and that's the first thing he says? Make a weapon?" Mike says in disgust, striding towards them with a dark scowl. Oh, her hero, but she hasn't forgiven you for abandoning her the first time around. _Better watch your step, Munroe._

"Come on, lady and gentlemen," Hoskins pleads, and Sam has to resist the urge to punch him right in his piggy face, "it's grown-up time. Drones can't search tunnels and caves, and they're hackable. The moment a real war breaks out, all that fancy tech is gonna go dark." _  
_

"But that tech's not gonna eat them if they forget to feed them," Mike points out, leaning against the railing with Sam at his side.

"Look at these creatures," Hoskins says, staring down inside the paddock and leaning so far over the railing, that Sam entertains the idea of pushing him down there and letting him get eaten. "They've got millions of years of instinct in their cells, instinct that we can program! Their loyalty cannot be bought. They're gonna run straight into the enemy's teeth and eat them, belt buckle and all," he finishes, satisfaction evident in his tone.

"And what if they decide _they_ want to be in control?" Mike asks, a challenge in his voice. "What then?"

"Then we remind them who  _is_. We terminate the rogues"—so help her, she's going to punch that self-satisfied look on his face—"and promote only the loyal bloodlines."

Mike laughs, highly amused by his response, and walks away, still laughing raucously.

"What?" Hoskins demands, eyes bugged out. "What's so fucking funny?"

"You come here and you don't learn a thing about these animals," Sam says, pleased to see him flinch back at the dark, disgusted tone of her voice, "except what you want to know. You made them, and now you think you own them."

"We do own them."

FUCKING BASTARD, SHE'S GONNA RIP HIS HEAD OFF.

"Extinct animals have no rights."

YOU WANNA FUCKING BET ON THAT?

"They're not extinct anymore, Hoskins," she says through clenched teeth, fighting to keep herself calm.

"Exactly. We're sitting on a goldmine, and Masrani is using it to stock a petting zoo," Hoskins replies scornfully.

"He just wants to teach people some humility. He doesn't make weapons," Sam answers, rolling up the sleeves of her shirt.

Hoskins laughs. "You think the eighth richest man in the world is only into oil, telecom, and family fun parks?" he asks derisively. "He's so diversified, he doesn't even know what he owns!"

"How long has InGen been practicing this pitch?" Sam snaps, stepping into the entry cage and shutting the gate in Hoskins's face.

He doesn't seem fazed, leaning against the bars. "Since we hired you out of the Navy. You knew the endgame. These animals can replace thousands of boots on the ground. War is part of nature. Look around, Samantha"— _don't call me that, you fucking pig_ —"every living thing in this jungle is trying to murder the other"— _that's what i'm gonna do if you don't shut up_ —"Mother Nature's way of testing her creations, refining the pecking order. Without that . . . we end up with places like this, charge seven bucks a soda."

Sam stops what she's doing and turns to face him, looking him dead in the eye. "Do you even hear yourself when you talk?"

"This is gonna happen," Hoskins threatens, "with or without you. Progress always wins, man."

Sam snorts. "Well, then, maybe progress should lose for once—"

"Pig loose!" a high voice cries out. "Pig loose!" A girl with light blond hair in braids runs across the catwalk, a catching pole in her hand. She comes to a screeching halt in the middle of the catwalk and catches the pig, but then out of the jungle a raptor dashes out, snapping the pig up in her jaws. One powerful tug on the catching pole and the girl falls down, screaming, landing with a thud on the ground. Sam slams a button and the inner gate opens. She can hear Mike's shocked, "Sam,  _no_!" even as she slips under the gate.

"No, hold your fire!" she yells at the ACU members up on the catwalk, shielding the girl with her own body. The raptors advance, claws clicking ominously. "Hold your fire, do not fire," Sam says calmly, backing away. Behind her, she can hear the girl scrambling backwards, and the gate opening. Good, that must mean Mike's there. "Put 12 amps in these animals, they're never gonna trust me again. Blue,  _stand down_."

The blue-striped raptor moves closer.

" _Stand down_ ," Sam repeats, and receives a growl and a snap in reply. "Hey! Hey! What did I just say? Delta, I see you, back up!" She turns her head slightly to glare at the tiger-striped raptor. "Okay, good, good," she says calmly, and then:

"Charlie." Her voice is a warning, and the green raptor hisses as their gazes meet. "Stay right there." The raptors continue to advance, but they don't attack. "Good. Close the gate."

"Are you crazy?" Mike demands.

"Trust me."

"Close the gate, please," Blonde Braid Babe pleads.

The silence is thick and oppressive with deadly anticipation. It threatens to force her to the ground, to cave in, but she remains calm. The gate slides closer to the ground. At the last second, she turns and rolls under it, barely making it before the raptors slam against the bars, snarling, hissing, growling, clawing, snapping. Mike pulls her up, relief apparent on his face, and pulls her into a tight hug.

"Fucking reckless daredevil," he mutters when he pulls away. She flips him off, and he grins as he moves to leave.

She finally turns to Blonde Braid Babe, sitting on the ground looking horror struck. "You're the new girl, right?"

BBB nods nervously.

"What's your name?"

"Jessica," BBB— er,  _Jessica_ , replies.

"You ever wonder why there was a job opening?"

Jessica gulps fearfully, and Sam sighs.

"Don't ever turn your back on the cage," she says, and a small smile curls her lip as the girl turns around, shrieks at the sight of Echo's face pressed against the bars, and jumps back. Jessica sticks close by her side, following her out of the entry cage with an anxious, backward glance at the raptors.

Hoskins watches, new ideas churning half-formed in his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sam and the raptors, finally!! as well as mike and jessica, of course. seriously, imagine sam in owen's movie outfit, training raptors. (swoons) i'm in love, man. my tumblr is strangewolfe.


	4. numbers on a spreadsheet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sometimes she wonders how their date could've gone otherwise. but she's not telling anyone that, least of all him.

"Oh my god, Beth,  _it's nuzzling me_!" Hannah squeals, holding out her hand for a baby  _Triceratops_  to nuzzle. As Beth watches, the dinosaur bleats blissfully, leaning into her sister's hands, and she can't help grinning at the unintelligible noises of utter joy emitting from Hannah. Despite not sharing Beth's enthusiasm for dinosaurs, Hannah seems to be enjoying her time at the park. It's all part of Beth's master plan. Her sister is slowly being converted to dinosaur obsession, and one day, she'll get her claws on Josh as well.

"—Hi, Em, have you picked out the bridesmaids yet—"

Beth's attention snaps from Hannah to Matt, and she spins around. He's on the phone. Distracted. Not paying attention to either of them.

_This is their chance._

She only has a moment to feel apologetic for potentially getting Matt into trouble before she grabs Hannah, pulling her away from the  _Triceratops_. She feels briefly sorry for the baby dinosaur as it bleats mournfully for its new friend. "Scatter, scatter," she whispers in Hannah's ear, and soon they're out of Matt's sight, wonderfully free and alone. They bob and weave through the crowd of people, laughing and pushing each other, before—

" _The next **T-Rex** feeding will begin in 10 minutes_," a voice from invisible speakers announces, and Beth gasps.

" _T-Rex_  feeding, Hannah, come on! Let's go!" she says excitedly, grabbing her sister's hand and making for the  _T-Rex_  enclosure.

Hannah soon loses Beth in the mass of people crowding in front of the glass, watching the oldest dinosaur in the park, a female  _Tyrannosaurus Rex_  whose first home was the very first park, tear into a goat. She doesn't mind the people blocking her view—gore is really not her thing—and suddenly her phone vibrates in her pocket, scaring the shit out of her.

"Hi, Mom," she says cheerfully once sufficiently recovered from her fright.

" _You were supposed to call me when you landed_ ," her mother's voice scolds. " _Are you having fun?_ "

"Yeah, Josh gave us passes so we don't have to wait in line," she replies.

" _Wait, he's not with you?_ "

Oh.

She may have majorly fucked everything up for Josh.

* * *

His phone buzzes from its place on the shotgun seat as he drives toward Sam's bungalow. One glance at the caller, and Josh wonders if it would be wiser to ignore it.

"Hey, Mom!"

Please, he's not that ready to die.

" _Hi, Josh, how's it going?_ "

He knows that tone of voice  _very_  well.

"Yeah, uh, everything's great!" he replies, cursing himself for his inability to lie under pressure from parents. Members of the Board are one thing, but nothing can escape the notice of dear Mother and Father. "The twins are having fun, everyone's . . . yeah, everyone's good."

" _Really? Because I just hung up with Hannah and she said you weren't even with them!_ "

Honestly, he should have expected this kind of thing from his naive sister. Josh's a regular old silvertongue compared to Hannah, and Beth's ability to craft untruths trumps them both. "Yeah, um, look, today turned out to be a really bad day for me, I'm sorry," he answers. "They're in great hands, they're with my assistant!" he adds, trying to reassure her. "He's efficient, and a sweetheart, to boot."

Oh my god,  _is she crying_. "Are you . . . Mom, are you crying?"

" _This was supposed to be a family weekend, Josh,_ " his mother says tearfully. " _You haven't seen the twins in years, and Hannah can just be so clueless about things, and Beth might drag her into something she doesn't know about._ "

Oh, god, yeah, she's right. Fuck him, he makes bad decisions.

"I'm so, so, so sorry. I'll make it up to you tomorrow," he promises. "I'll take the entire day off, and I won't leave their side, I swear."

He can hear a sniffle from the other end, and his guilt multiplies by a hundredfold. Guilt-tripping parents are the worst. " _Well, a promise tomorrow is worth a lot less than trying today,_ " Mrs Washington says, and he has to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Trust Mom to always have a vaguely poetic line or two for every situation.

"I know, I know," he says placatingly. "I promise, I'll do better tomorrow."

" _Okay, I'll hold you to that,_ " she says, sounding significantly happier. " _Bye._ "

"Bye."

_Click._

He sits back in his seat and refocuses his entire attention on driving, certain that he'd narrowly avoided being killed.

* * *

She's covered in grease and sweat up to her elbows by the time the car rolls up. She looks up from her precious motorcycle and nearly goes blind when Josh Washington steps out, an impeccable white jacket over his impeccable white shirt, smoothing down his impeccable white pants, and stepping precariously over the uneven terrain in his (wildly impractical) impeccable white shoes.

Sam, on the other hand, is clad in a comfortable, worn white T-shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, (because it's really fucking hot) and a hardy pair of ( _practical!_ ) brown boots. She finds the stark contrast in their style of dress highly amusing, and his obvious revulsion to her clothing choices only adds to her merriment. But then she turns serious, because if Josh Washington's here, that means shit is about to go down.

"What do they want now?" she asks bluntly, throwing down her greasy rag and stretching her legs from her crouched position. She doesn't move towards him, and he stops just a few meters in front of her.

"Miss Leroy," he begins, and she grimaces at the title, "I need you to come take a look at something—"

"For the record, you can call me Sam," she interrupts, raising a brow.

"—if you're not too busy," he finishes with a scowl.

"Oh, I'm pretty busy," she says, making to turn her back on him.

She hears him sigh, and she can't help but smirk. "We have an attraction."

"That's not what you said the last time I saw you," she says, deciding to face him in order to see his expression.

He looks offended, much to her delight. "I'm talking about the dinosaurs, Miss Leroy—"

"Sam."

"Sam," he concedes, scowling. "It's a new species we made."

"You just went and made a new dinosaur?" she says incredulously.

"Yeah, it's kind of what we do here," he says irritably.

That statement deserves a blank look, which it gets.

"The exhibit opens to the public in three weeks," he continues. "Mr Masrani wanted me to consult with you."

She raises both her brows this time. "So? Consult away." She turns to ascend the steps to her bungalow's porch, grabbing a clean rag hanging from the railing and wiping off the dirt and grime on her arms.

He sighs again and climbs halfway up the stairs. "We'd like you to evaluate the paddock for vulnerabilities."

"Why me?"

"I guess Mr Masrani thinks that since you're able to control the raptors—" he begins.

"It's all about control with you, isn't it?" she says, placing the not-so-clean rag back on the railing and turning to face him. "I don't control the raptors. It's a relationship based on mutual respect." She quirks her brow and gazes up at him. "And _that_  is why you and I never had a second date." She leaves him sputtering on the steps, a smug grin on her face, and makes her way back to her motorcycle.

"Excuse me? I never  _wanted_  a second date," he protests.

"Who prints out an  _itinerary_  for a night out?" she calls out, purposefully not looking at him.

"I'm an organized person!"

"What kind of a diet doesn't allow tequila?" she shoots back, but quickly regrets it when she turns around and sees the uncertain look on his face. Damn, what's got him so anti-alcohol?

"All of them, actually," he retorts, but not with his previous venom. "And what kind of a woman shows up to a date in board shorts?"

"It's Central America, it's hot!" she protests.

"Okay, okay, can we just focus on the asset, please?"

"The asset?" she repeats, incredulous for the second time that day, and stalks in front of him, stopping just at the foot of the stairs. He's already a head taller than her on even ground, but the added height doesn't faze her, because if Melinda May can kick three six foot-tall men's asses, she can with this scrawny, well-dressed shrimp. "Look, I get it, you're in charge. It's probably easier for you to pretend these animals are just numbers on a spreadsheet, but they're not." She looks him in the eye, and he looks away. "They're  _alive_."

He sighs.  _God, you're gonna mess up your throat if you keep sighing like that. Sighing very sensually, at that. Wait, what?_  "I'm fully aware that they're alive."

"You might have made them in a test tube, but they don't know that. They're thinking, 'I gotta eat. I gotta hunt. I gotta make love while desperately in heat.'" Her pride flares dramatically at his disbelieving, incomprehensible sputtering. "You can relate to at least one of those things, right?" she asks sardonically, smirking.

He rolls his eyes and mutters something inaudible. "I'll be in the car," he says resignedly. "You might want to change your shirt, by the way," he says, descending the stairs so now they're face-to-face. Well, face-to-chest. He's very tall. "They're very sensitive to smell."

She briefly considers making some smart comment, but decides to just flip him off when his back is turned before heading back into her bungalow to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should have a schedule for this probably. a sHHHHedule (dons a british accent) GLASSier. STAYtus. yes mhm
> 
> my tumblr is strangewolfe 'cos i can't figure out how to link.
> 
> yet.


	5. and that's when the world went to shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> four words: asset out of containment.

"We've been pre-booking tickets for months," Josh says, business-like yet again, brisk stride leading Sam (who's wearing a brown vest over a blue shirt and looking  _good_ ) up the stairs to the observation room. The drive to the paddock felt longer than the drive to Sam's bungalow, what with Sam making critical, irritating comments every so often. Josh snapped twice and nearly crashed the car twice, but none of those things seemed to faze her. Being the alpha of a pack of hungry, bloodthirsty raptors (if Sam hears him call her precious raptors "bloodthirsty," she'll kill him, probably) seems to desensitize you significantly. "The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest, kind of like the space program. Corporate felt that genetic modification would up the wow factor."

"They're dinosaurs," Sam mutters, following behind at a small distance. "Wow enough."

"Not according to our focus groups," he says, proud of himself for keeping his calm this time. "The  _Indominus Rex_  makes us relevant again."

"The  _Indominus Rex_ ," she repeats, voice shaking with laughter so the words are almost impossible to understand. "The  _Indominus_  fucking  _Rex_ ," she says again, and laughs freely at the (admittedly, ridiculous) name. "Really? Jesus fucking Christ, who named the poor thing?"

"We needed something scary and easy to pronounce," he points out irritably. "You should hear a four-year-old try to say ' _Archaeornithomimus_.'"

"You should hear you try to say it," he hears her mutter, but he lets it slide this time.

"So what's this thing made of?" she asks once they're in the observation room.

"It's base genome is  _T-Rex_ , the rest is classified," he answers, knowing how unhelpful he's being by the flash of disbelief and irritation that crosses her face.

"You made a new dinosaur and you don't even know what it is?"

He despises the condescension in her voice. "The lab delivers us finished assets, and we show them to the public, that's it." He turns to the guard. "Can we drop a steer, please?"

The crane, with the body of a steer attached to it, swings around and into the paddock. The tall trees nearly hide it from sight.

"How long has the animal been in there?" Sam asks, leaning forward towards the glass.

"All its life."

"Never seen anything outside these walls?"

"We can't exactly walk it," he answers sarcastically, but for once, she doesn't rise to the bait.

"And you feed it with  _that_?" She points at the crane.

"What, is there a problem with that?" he asks, nonplussed.

"Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional," she states, still trying to catch a glimpse of the  _Indominus Rex_.

"Your raptors are born in captivity," Josh points out, his annoyance quickly growing. _  
_

"With siblings," she says. "They learn social skills, and I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust involved. The only positive relationship that animal has is with that crane." She sighs and grips the railing. "At least she knows that means food."

 _What's she getting at?_  "So, what, she needs a friend? We should schedule playdates, that sort of thing?"

"Probably not a good idea," she responds after a few moments of silence.

All this time, they haven't seen a scale of the  _Indominus Rex_. She seems to have disappeared into thin air. He raps his fingers against the glass in frustration, hoping that she'll appear to investigate. "Where is she?" he asks rhetorically after a while, irritation clouding his features.

"Is she downstairs?" Sam asks sarcastically. "Is she in the basement? Maybe there's a rec room." She wanders off to look at something else.

Josh growls and half-runs to the tablet controlling the cameras in the paddock. "She was just here, we were  _just here_." He taps a few buttons and—

"Oh, shit," the guard whispers, turning to look at the cameras' beeping and saying that she's nowhere in the paddock. "That—that doesn't make any sense," the guard stammers, "these doors haven't been opened in weeks!"

"Uh, guys?"

Four eyes turn to stare at Sam, who's at the opposite end of the room.

"Were those claw marks always there?"

Josh sprints to her side, but the sight of the long, jagged marks forces him to stumble back, suddenly feeling sick, suddenly feeling dizzy. "Do you think she . . . ? Oh, fuck," he swears, heart beating out a wild, erratic pattern. "She—she has an implant on her back, I can track it from the control room." He pulls his phone out of his pocket and nearly trips as he runs down the stairs. "We have an asset out of containment! Put ACU on alert. This is not a drill!"

* * *

Chris is dreamily watching Ashley as she outlines the plot of her book, commenting every now and then to give his opinion when she asks for it, when the phone starts ringing loud enough to scare the shit out of both of them. He makes a wild grab for it and almost falls out of his chair.

"Yeah, uh, hello?"

" _Chris!_ "

The fear and anxiety in Josh's voice makes his stomach twist, because in all the years he's awkwardly talked with him, Chris has never known Josh to sound so  _terrified_.

" _Get me coordinates on the **Indominus**._ "

"Okay, yeah, got it," Chris says, tapping hastily on the screen on his desk while Ashley leans on his shoulder, looking nervous and confused. "I'm doing it right now."

* * *

"That wall is forty feet high," the guard says nervously, walking beside Sam to inspect the marks. "Do you really think she could've climbed out?"

"That would depend," Sam says, moving quickly to join the worker in the paddock with them.

"On what?"

"On what kind of dinosaur they cooked up in that lab," she finishes grimly.

* * *

" _Wait, what the hell,_ " Chris whispers, and Josh grips the phone tightly, willing him to speak faster. " _She's in the cage!_ "

His blood runs cold. "No. No, no, no, no, no, that's impossible, I was just there!"

" _Josh, I'm telling you, she's in the cage!_ " Chris insists. " _Wait—oh my god—there are people in there!_ "

"Get them out," Josh says, his knuckles white where they grip the wheel, and he yells, " _NOW!_ "

* * *

" _Pa—even—control—_ "

The guard mutters a bewildered curse, and Sam turns to glance at him in curiosity. "Yeah, what's the problem?" he speaks into the mic, bringing it closer to his ear.

" _It's—the cage—in there—with you!_ "

No.

They see their own, terrified expressions reflected in each other's faces. "Go! Go!" she yells, running back the way they came, the worker swearing at her side. They're so close, they're so damn close, but then—

An earth-shattering roar sends her brain  _reeling_ , and she slides to a halt in front of a monster with white scales, long, dexterous front arms, and rows upon rows of deadly teeth. She turns quickly and runs blindly in the opposite direction, flinching as snakelike jaws snap up the worker behind her. The other door is wide open, the guard's form growing more distant on the other side, and her mind is singing a discordant tune, trying to be heard over the clash and rumble of blood pounding in her ears, crying out,  _the door, the door, get to the door!_

* * *

Suddenly, Masrani is there. "Close the door," he says.

"We can't leave her in there with that thing," Ashley protests.

"Close it now!" he orders, and Ashley closes the door.

" _Somebody talk to me!_ " Josh yells from the phone, and Chris winces. " _ **What**  is happening?_"

* * *

It's closing! The door is closing! She's not gonna make it, she's not gonna make it—

She makes it, but so does the  _Indominus Rex_.

In the chaos, she slides under a car, and watches with pure terror singing through her veins as the  _Indominus Rex_  stalks around. There's another car beside the one she's under, and the  _guard_ , oh god, the guard, he's sitting as still as possible right in front of it, but she's sure that won't be enough, it isn't enough. A tense silence falls over them, of a hungry predator hunting hiding, hoping prey, as the  _Indominus_  rounds the other car. With one powerful swing, the  _Indominus_  launches the car into the air, and it lands, upside down, in front of Sam. She flinches, she can't help it, but the  _Indominus_  doesn't seem to notice. The guard stays still, hoping, but it's not enough, because deadly jaws close on his body and she hears the sound of swallowing. She rolls onto her back, pulls a knife out of her pocket, and cuts the gasoline line, dousing herself in the strong-smelling liquid.

And waits.

The seconds tick by. She hears the _Indominus_  breathing right beside her and closes her eyes, trying to breathe quieter. Heavy footfalls pass her by, but she doesn't dare move her aching muscles until the thuds of the  _Indominus_  walking away fades into an eerie silence. Only then, with labored breathing and a pounding heart, does she rolls out from under the car. She reaches up and reties her hair before setting her jaw in a determined grimace, walking at a steady pace towards the control room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooohh, shit's going down.
> 
> i have recently changed my url and i am now wendigowolfie on tumblr


	6. philosophical killer dinosaurs do exist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sam will kill you all.

A hushed silence descends upon the control room as Josh walks in, all eyes turning immediately to him.

"Everyone remain calm," he says, fighting to keep his voice steady. He is Joshua Washington, Park Operations Manager of Jurassic World. He will _not_ break down now. "The implant will shock her if she gets too close to a perimeter fence."

"She's moving really fast," Chris says nervously, swiveling his chair to look up at the screens before him. A sweeping glare from Josh and everyone else follows suit, keen to do their jobs rather than provoking Josh.

Ashley picks up the phone. "This is Control," Ashley speaks, impressively calm in the face of potential doom, "put out a park-wide alert—"

"Hang up that damn phone, please," Masrani orders unexpectedly, moving forward with brisk, quick steps towards Ashley.

"Sorry, I'm getting new information. Everything's fine," she lies, and puts the phone down.

"Let Asset Containment capture her quietly," Masrani explains. "The very existence of the park is predicated on our ability to handle incidents like this. It was an eventuality, okay?"

"You should put that in the brochure," Chris mutters. "'Eventually, one of these things will eat somebody.'"

"That paddock is four miles from the closest attraction," Ashley points out anxiously.

"ACU can handle this," Josh says, feigning confidence. "Nobody else is going to get—"

"—eaten?" Chris finishes, raising a brow.

* * *

Mike gently strokes Delta's snout, whispering calming words in his clumsy French vocabulary. Sam's been teaching him whenever she has the time, though exactly when and how it started, Mike can't quite recall. All he remembers is that, eventually, Sam would mention the meanings of some of the words she'd say, and he'd do his best to remember them. He remembers compliments and praises to the raptors better than the other words, because that's what Sam usually says. He speaks what he can recall now to Delta, scratching his favorite raptor's scales with a smile.

"How fast can they run?"

Delta jerks, and Mike pulls his hands away, lifting his gaze to meet Hoskins's. "40," he answers, then quirks a brow at the other man. "50 when they're hungry."

"You ever open them up, you know, see what they can do?" Hoskins asks, and Mike swears he can see a greedy glint in his eyes.

"No."

Hoskins reaches a hand out towards Delta, and Mike hides his scowl. "Can I . . . ?"

He'd rather not, but Mike backs away, spreading his arms out. "Be my guest."

Before Hoskins's hand can even make contact with Delta's scales, the black-striped raptor struggles against her bonds with a sudden jerk, causing the man to yelp and jump backwards.

"Oh, shit!" Hoskins gasps, backing away a healthy distance from Delta. Mike can't help laughing at the sight. "Oh, shit!" Hoskins repeats, a grin growing on his face. "That got me. It fucking got me."

Mike chuckles and returns to his place at Delta's side, muttering " _good girl, good girl_ ," in French. Hopefully Hoskins doesn't understand. "What do you think?" he addresses Hoskins casually. "Want to take one of them home?" Delta snorts and pulls against her bonds again, obviously not fond of the suggestion. Then again, it could just be Mike trying to humanize her.

Hoskins laughs. "Hey, don't joke. When I was your age, I rescued a wolf pup."

_You sure it wasn't a misrepresented husky mix?_

"It was, like, two months old. It could barely walk."

_It? Christ, man._

"It used to sleep by my bed, watch over me," Hoskins continues, unaware of Mike's unimpressed thoughts. "My wife, she came at me with a steak knife. It took a chunk out of her arm," he says, obviously delighted.

"Did you put him down?" Mike asks. He can sympathize with Hoskins's wife. If he had  _him_ for a husband, he'd start waving steak knives around, too.

"Hell no," Hoskins answers. "We had an unshakable bond, you know? Just like you and . . ." He glances at Delta. "What's his name?"

"Delta," Mike answers, frowning, "and she's a girl." Before he can say anymore, a frantic voice babbles to him from his walkie talkie, and he backs away, pulling it closer to his ear to be able to hear it better. The information makes his blood run cold. "Code 19!" he calls out to the guys up on the catwalk. "They said we lost two guys!"

"What's Code 19?" Hoskins asks.

"Asset out of containment," Mike replies, grimacing and walking away. "We never learn!"

He doesn't see Hoskins pull out his phone.

* * *

"Beth?"

Beth tears her gaze away from the glass walls of the monorail to blink at her sister. "Yeah?"

"If Mom and Dad get divorced, will we be split up?"

Beth isn't expecting it, and reaches a hand out to steady herself.

"I heard them talking about it last night, when they thought we were asleep," Hannah says without waiting for an answer, looking down at her lap.

"I didn't— oh, Christ," Beth groans, leaning back into her seat. She should have expected this. She knows her parents have been on unsteady ground for the past few years— _ever since Josh left_ , she thinks bitterly—but she never believed for a moment that they'd really, actually split. They always get through this—they always do!

"Well, whatever happens, I'm not leaving you," she says, determined, clutching Hannah's hand in hers. Her sister smiles nervously and leans against her. Beth can feel Hannah's tears soaking through her shirt, and she wants to cry, too.

But she's the tough one of the siblings. She'll be strong.

For Hannah.

* * *

Sam barges out of the elevator, ignoring the guard pawing at her and demanding an ID. She stops to stand in front of Josh, glaring darkly up at him. "What the hell happened there?" she demands, and Josh flinches. "There are thermal cameras all over that paddock! She did _not_ just disappear!"

"It must have been some technical malfunction," Josh offers up as a feeble explanation.

"Were you not watching?" Sam demands, raising her voice, and Josh backs away. "She marked up that wall as a  _distraction_! She wanted us to think she _escaped_!"

"Hold on, we are talking about an animal here," Masrani says, moving a few steps forward.

"A _highly intelligent_ animal," she growls.

"400 meters to the beacon," Ashley reports, trying to watch the screen rather than the argument.

Sam walks slowly to her side, staring open-mouthed at the camera footage. Her disbelief turns into anger. "You're going after her with  _non-lethals_?"

"We have $26 million invested in that asset," Josh protests, "We can't just kill it."

"Those men are gonna die," Sam snarls.

"300 meters to the beacon," Ashley says, raising her voice to be heard over their loud voices.

"Call off this mission.  _Now_ ," Sam demands.

"They are right on top of it," Masrani insists.

"Call it off right now!"

"You are not in control here!" Josh finally bursts out, straightening up to his full height and towering over Sam. But Sam's not looking at him, she's staring at the footage from the camera, and she's watching it with her mouth pressed in a thin line. One of the ACU members—Hamada—approaches the beacon. It's a patch of flesh, the implant flickering inside it.

" _Blood's not clotted yet_ ," Hamada reports. " _It's close._ "

"What the hell is that?" Chris asks, revulsion on his face.

"That's her tracking implant. She must have clawed it out," Sam answers.

"How would it know to do that?"

"She remembered where they put it in," Sam says, so low that the others strain to catch it.

They watch in horror as Hamada inclines his head to look at a droplet of blood on his wrist, then slowly turns around and stands up, staring at blood-stained leaves stirring high above him in the jungle. He turns, puzzled, gazing at his team members, but—

"What are they looking at?" Chris asks, leaning forward. "What are they—"

He breaks off, because when Hamada looks behind him, he knows.

" _It can camouflage!_ " Hamada yells, seconds before deadly jaws close around his body. They watch the chaos unfold in horrified silence as heartbeat after heartbeat flatlines, flinching at every desperate scream, every pained yell, and then, when finally, every single one of them are dead, Sam turns around, face solemn and angry.

"Evacuate the island," she says.

"We'd never reopen," Josh says weakly.

"You made a genetic hybrid," she says, every word a hammer blow, "you raised her in captivity. She is seeing  _all_ of this for the first time.  _She_ does not even _know_ what _she is_. She will kill  _everything_ that moves."

"You think the animal is contemplating its own existence?" Masrani asks sarcastically, though his voice seems subdued.

"She is learning where she fits in the food chain," Sam snaps, "and I'm not sure you want her to figure that out. Now, Asset Containment can use live ammunition in an emergency situation. You have an M134 in your armory, put it on a chopper, and  _smoke this thing_!"

"We have families here," Josh retorts, "I'm not gonna turn this place into some kind of a warzone!"

Sam gives him a pitying smile. "You already have."

"Miss Leroy," he says, and Sam is honestly impressed at how quickly he becomes all business again, "if you're not gonna help, then there's no reason for you to be here."

Sam snorts and moves towards the elevator. Just before she's inside, she turns around. "I would have a word with the people in your lab," she says coldly. "That thing out there? That's no dinosaur." And then she steps inside the elevator. The doors close, and she's gone.

Josh breathes out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Okay, that's over. All right, I'm going to close everything north of the resort. This is a Phase One, real world. Bring everyone in."

"This is a Phase One, real world," Ashley says dutifully, "I repeat, this is a Phase One. Bring everyone back in."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea why i headcanon sam as french. my brain just decided one day, "hey, sam is french" and that was the end of it.
> 
> my tumblr is wendigowolfie.


	7. don't work at jurassic world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> unless you want to get eaten.

"Oh my god, is that Jimmy Fallon?" Hannah points at the Gyrosphere's screen, bewildered. "What?"

" _Hey there, I'm Jimmy Fallon!_ " the man on the screen greets cheerfully, much to both of the twins' amazement. Hannah laughs in delight as he falls backwards after an accident with  _Dilophosaurus_ venom, clearly amused by his antics. Beth smiles, glad that  _something_ is distracting her sister from their parents and the divorce situation. She rocks back and forth, frowning as she stares outside the Gyrosphere's walls and into the Valley. _  
_

"Where are they?" she says in frustration, until they round a bend and suddenly—

"Oh, wow," Hannah whispers, tearing her gaze from the screen to gaze at the various dinosaurs suddenly standing before them, watching them go by. And suddenly they're charging forward alongside the Gyrosphere, bellowing and grunting, and they both laugh in awe and exhilaration, feeling the pounding of the dinosaurs' feet on the ground. Beth speeds them up, but the dinosaurs are equal to that, and they're both left in the dust. _  
_

"That was—" Beth begins, but is cut off by a voice on the speakers.

" _Due to technical difficulties, all our exhibits are now closed. Please disembark all rides and return to the resort._ "

Disappointment washes over them both, but Beth shakes her head. "Let's stay out for a couple more minutes!"

Hannah glances at her, uncertainty in her gaze. "But they said it was closed."

"Aw, come on. Josh gave us special wristbands, remember? We're VIP," Beth replies confidently. "It'll be fun!"

There's a pause before Hannah says peaceably, "All right, then."

* * *

" _Hello?_ " Matt's voice questions over the phone, and Josh releases the breath he'd been holding.

"Matt, thank god. I need you to bring the girls back to the hotel, now."

" _I've been looking everywhere for them! I can't find them!_ "

"Wait, _what_?"

* * *

Beth nearly has a heart attack when something vibrates against her pocket. It turns out to be her phone, and she cringes when she sees who's calling. "Hey, there, Joshy!" she greets cheerfully, and Hannah glances at her in worry. Her worry multiplies tenfold when Beth furrows her brow in confusion. "I can't hear you. We're in the Gyrosphere. Hello? Josh?" Beth pulls her phone away from her ear and frowns. "Huh. Guess the signal here's really bad."

"Did you catch what he said?"

"Nah. Sounded like gibberish. Come on, I can see an  _Apatosaurus_ over there."

* * *

Someone's hand lands on Chris's shoulder and he has a minor freak out. It's not the  _Indominus_ , however, but Josh, looking panicked.

"Are there any Gyrospheres left in the Valley?" he demands.

"What?" Chris can't help but feel somewhat offended. "Uh, no, they're all accounted for. It's my job— oh, wait," he cuts himself off, "Yeah, there's one in the field."  _Note to self, if you're feeling strangely self-assured, something bad just happened and it's your fault._

"Send a team of rangers, bring them in!"

"Security," Ashley speaks into the phone, "we need a search and rescue in the Valley."

" _It's gonna be a while, we've got our hands full over here_ ," the phone crackles in reply.

Josh wrenches the phone out of Ashley's hands, much to her surprise, and snarls, "No, no,  _no_ , there are two guests missing! You need to make this your top priority, dammit!"

"Just do it, man," Chris whispers, biting his fingernails, and sighs when he hears the reply, " _We're doing the best we can_." There is now nothing stopping Josh Washington from figuring out which employee so naively thought he was doing his job and firing his ass.

"Fine, I'll do it myself," Josh growls, stepping back, but he doesn't leave immediately, to Chris's bewilderment, instead staring at the camera footage as if searching for a way to do so. Josh's eyes zero in on one screen in particular, and Chris follows his gaze to see the  _Velociraptor_ girl, Sam, arguing with someone on the screen. He turns to ask what the hell Josh is looking at, but the impeccably dressed man is already hurrying towards the elevator.

* * *

"Oh, shit," Beth says, drawing out the "i," "what happened here?"

Part of the fence is ripped away, leaving a gaping hole through the fence. Beth shares an excited glance with Hannah.

"Dude. Off-road."

"Is this allowed?" Hannah asks, worry in her eyes.

"Hey, we're VIP, Han. No one will know," she assures her, maneuvering the Gyrosphere through the gap.

* * *

A flash of white barrels into Sam and she stumbles backwards, raising her fists in preparation for a fight. She lowers them at the sight of her "attacker's" face, because of fucking course the world would send Josh fucking Washington crashing into her.

"Washington, what the hell—"

"I need you," he says desperately, and she resigns herself to staring at him in blank incomprehension.

"Okay?" Is this where she gets her second date?

"I need your help," he clarifies, turning the most delightful shade of red. "My sisters, they're out in the Valley, if anything happens to them . . ."

Hold up.

Rewind that.

He has  _sisters_? "You have— okay, nevermind. What do they look like?"

* * *

"Beth, I don't know about this. This is a bad idea," Hannah says anxiously.

"Come on, Han, it's a  _great_ idea!"

"We're gonna get arrested!"

"No, we're not. You've been watching too much _NCIS_ ," Beth insists, rolling her eyes. "Look! _Ankylosaurus_! Four of them!"

"Okay, that's nice, but we're gonna get in trouble," Hannah pleads. "And there's five dinosaurs, not four."

Beth stares at her in confusion. "What? No, there's four. Two over there, one right next to us, another out in the distance . . . four!"

Hannah raises a shaky hand up, pointing at the reflection on the glass. "Five."

They meet each other's gaze and slowly turn around. Hannah lets out a whimper of fear at the sight of a massive creature, built like a _Tyrannosaurus Rex_ but with longer, more dexterous arms, white scales, and snakelike jaws filled with sharp, deadly teeth, looming over them. They sit there, paralyzed with fear, until the creature's roar snaps them both to their senses and Beth leans forward to steer them away, Hannah screaming, "Go, go,  _go_!"

Luck's not on their side, however, for one of the _Ankylosaurus_ swings its tail, sending them crashing into the Not- _Rex_ like a dangerous game of pinball. The Gyrosphere is turned upside down, and Beth makes a wild grab for Hannah's glasses as they slip off her face. They watch with revulsion and terror on their faces as the Not- _Rex_ forces an  _Ankylosaur_ onto its back and tears the soft underbelly apart. The Not- _Rex_ doesn't eat it, however, choosing instead to charge after the others.

Beth's phone buzzes on the ceiling of the Gyrosphere, and she can see that the caller is Josh. Their brother is going to kill them if the Not- _Rex_ eats them, so Beth reaches a hand above her head, trying to grab her phone. It's much too far away for her to reach, but she persists.

"Beth," Hannah whispers.

"I almost got it," Beth grunts.

"Beth!"

"What?" She looks up, and her irritation gives way to fear. The Not- _Rex_ 's golden eyes stare directly at them, not even fucking blinking, which is not a thing normal animals do, and then it raises its terrifying head. It blinks once as it does so, but it's still completely un-fucking-natural, so there.

"We're safe in here, right? Jimmy Fallon said so," Hannah whispers, before letting out a muffled shriek as the Not- _Rex_ turns the Gyrosphere over. It raises a dexterous hand and experimentally jabs at the glass. The claw goes straight fucking through.

You lied, Jimmy Fallon.

Without another warning, it closes its jaws around the Gyrosphere. Hannah screams, Beth screams, the Not- _Rex_ screams. It pounds the Gyrosphere onto the ground, trying to dislodge its teeth. The glass backing of the Gyrosphere shatters, and the twins fall backwards, dazed and disorientated. Before they can make a move, the Gyrosphere crashes over their heads again, then being lifted up by the Not- _Rex_ 's teeth.

"Go, go!" Beth screams, pushing Hannah forward and barely making it herself. She can hear the Not- _Rex_ 's frustrated roar behind them, and it sends adrenaline bursting through her veins. They run blindly through the jungle until they reach a cliff, a random waterfall crashing and roaring deafeningly below them. Seriously,  _what the fuck_.

"We have to jump!" Beth yells.

"I can't!" Hannah cries out, panic in her eyes.

"We have to!" she insists desperately, hearing the Not- _Rex_ decimating the jungle in order to get to them. Josh is going to _kill them_."Three, two,  _go_!" Beth shoves Hannah off the cliff, following shortly after, and just in goddamn time. The impact leaves her winded, but she pulls Hannah down, frantically trying to sign that it's still there, it's waiting for them, they have to stay down. After a few more seconds, when neither of them can take it any longer, they burst out of the water, taking in gulps of fresh air. The Not- _Rex_ is gone. It must have given up, thank god. They swim towards the shore, dragging themselves through mud.

"We're alive," Hannah croaks, a bruise purpling on the side of her face. "Oh my god, we're alive."

"You jumped," Beth says hoarsely, and Hannah's shy, radiant smile fills her with cheer. "Come on," she says, pulling Hannah onto her feet. "Do you still have your phone?" Hannah shakes her head, and Beth sighs. "All right, then. Let's go find Josh."

"Tell him to quit his job," Hannah agrees, and Beth smiles.

"Exactly. Come on."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a spinny chair. i love it.
> 
> i'm wendigowolfie on tumblr.


	8. dead dinosaurs tell no tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sometimes your gut feelings are right.

Josh bites his lip, staring at his phone while the car rumbles over roads. He's called Beth and Hannah multiple times, but neither of them have responded. All sorts of terrifying thoughts are swarming inside his head, such as  _what if the **Indominus** got to them, what if something crushed their Gyrosphere, what if they were gored by a **Triceratops** , what if_—

"Stay here."

The combination of Sam's voice and the feeling of the car stopping shakes him out of his thoughts and makes him look up in surprise at her. He's never seen her look more serious; her mouth is set in a thin line, the way she moves as she gets out of the car is mechanical, automatic, and there's a look in her eyes that stops him from protesting. She grabs her rifle as she slides out, walking ahead, and when Josh turns his head to see, he realizes the reason for her somber expression.

Stretched out in front of them is a wounded  _Apatosaurus_. His stomach turns over at the sight of those familiar long claw marks on her flanks, so like those on the paddock walls. He pushes the door open and walks the length of the  _Apatosaurus_ , kneeling beside her head. For once, Sam doesn't reproach him, just mutters soothing words in a language he doesn't know on the other side of the  _Apatosaurus_ and laying a hand on her head. He tentatively reaches out a hand to stroke the  _Apatosaurus_ , and Sam moves her hand to let him rest his just below the dinosaur's eye. Before he can do that, however, the  _Apatosaurus_ raises her head and snorts, before resignedly dropping her head back down.

"It's okay, girl," Sam murmurs. "It's okay."

The  _Apatosaurus_ breathes her last breath, and dies.

When he looks up, Sam's face is unreadable, and she stands up, walking away. He can feel tears prickling at the corner of his eyes and wipes them away roughly, stretching his aching legs to rejoin Sam. He questioningly follows her gaze down the hill, and wishes he didn't; out in the Valley, several more  _Apatosaurus_ bodies are spread out, scavenger birds already feasting on their carcasses.

"She's killing for sport," Sam says, voice thick with emotion. "God, she's— she's not eating them. She's just _killing_ them." She turns to Josh, a grim expression on her face. "We've got to find your sisters. Now."

* * *

Some time later, they arrive at the wreckage of the Gyrosphere. Josh stumbles out of the car, inconsolable, picking up Beth's cracked, broken phone in his shaking hands. "No, no, no, please, no, oh, god no," he babbles frantically, holding the phone to his chest as if that would bring his sisters back.

"Hey!" Sam calls out, and he lifts his head a fraction. "They made it out," she says, gesturing to footprints on the mud he hadn't seen. Relief washes over him like a tidal wave, and he charges forward, following the footprints with a bemused Sam plodding along behind him. The footprints end when they reach the waterfall, the roaring of the water making him wince.

"They must have jumped," Sam says, then jumps in alarm as Josh yells, "Hannah! Beth!" She leaps towards him, waving her hands in front of his face and trying to shush him.

"Hey, I am not one of your damn animals!" he protests, dodging her.

"Listen," Sam growls in a low voice, "your sisters are still alive. But," she adds as Josh opens his mouth, "you and I will  _not_ be if you continue to scream like that."

Josh scowls. "So, you can pick up their scent, can't you?" he demands in a loud whisper. "Track their footprints?"

"I was with the Navy, not the Navajo," she snorts, rolling her eyes.

Josh scoffs. "So, what do we do?"

"You get back. I'll find them."

"No,  _we'll_ find them," he insists.

"You'll last two minutes in there, less in those ridiculous shoes!" she says, nearly forgetting to keep her voice down. Her irritated expression turns to one of confusion as Josh pulls his shirt open, revealing a lavender undershirt, ties his shirt around his waist, rolls up his sleeves to his elbows, and places his hands on his hips, glaring down at her.

She stares up at him, bewildered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm ready to go," he says, as if that was obvious.

She accepts that out of confusion. "Okay, now, let's get one thing straight. I'm in charge out here. You do everything I say exactly as I say it."

"Excuse me?"

She cracks a grim smile. "Relax. It's just like taking a stroll through the woods, 65 million years ago."

* * *

"Every time this thing kills, she moves farther south," Ashley says, glancing up in worry at the screen. "She's headed right for the park."

"Why would she come here?" Masrani asks, furrowing his brows.

"She can sense thermal radiation," Ashley replies. "Our emergency measures just put all the warm bodies in one place."

Before Masrani can say anything else, someone else walks—struts, more like—into the control room, moving to stand next to Masrani.

"Hoskins," the man says, and Ashley instantly dislikes him.

"I know who you are," Masrani replies, and Hoskins smiles.

"Then you know why I'm here. I've been working for two years on an application for those raptors. They can hunt and kill that creature."

The thought of letting  _Velociraptors_ roam around unattended doesn't exactly sound like a promising plan to Ashley.

"But your program was to test their intelligence," Masrani points out.

"Yeah, it was," Hoskins says dismissively. "And we did. And in the process, we learned something. They can follow orders. You see, the solution to your crisis is standing right in front of you!"

There's a pause before Masrani says, slowly and deliberately, "Let me be as clear as I can. No  _Velociraptors_ are going to be set loose on this island."

Hoskins lets out a bark of incredulous laughter that startles Ashley. She clings to Chris's arm for reassurance, and he pats her hand soothingly.

"You're out of your mind!" he accuses Masrani. "What are you going to do with all these people? You've got 20,000 people here! What the fuck are you going to do? They have no place to go! That thing is a killing machine!  _And it will not stop._ " With every word, Ashley gets more and more anxious.

"Okay," Masrani finally says. "I intend to personally look into your project to determine its viability within the moral principles of this company."

Hoskins scowls, displeased. "Okay then, boss," he says, condescension laced in every word, "what's your next move?"

The grin on Masrani's face reassures Ashley no more than Hoskins's dramatic speech.

When the helicopter is up in the air and she's walking away back to the control room, she can't help feeling like something's going to happen.

Something  _really_ bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whispers my tumblr is wendigowolfie pls talk to me i'm very sad


	9. dinosaur bones make great weapons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the washington siblings reunite. sam is a badass. beth is a lesbian.

Sam has her rifle out, which makes Josh think that there's definitely something poking around in the ruins of the old park. They're standing just outside a garage with a pair of old-looking cars parked inside of it, the logo of Jurassic Park inscribed on both of them. He stays very close behind Sam as she inspects the place, moving to check around and under the cars. Just as Josh is about to make some smart comment like, "There's nothing here, we should go check out that promising-looking door over there," a crash from somewhere behind said door scares the living shit out of him and makes him duck for cover behind Sam. The door slowly creaks opens, and Josh's jaw drops onto the floor, because he definitely recognizes that beanie and that butterfly tattoo.

"Who the hell—" Sam begins, but Josh cuts her off with a "Hannah! Beth!"

The twins whip around to face them, Beth holding up a . . . dinosaur bone? . . . as a makeshift weapon. She drops her arms in bone-weary relief upon recognizing Josh, and they both rush towards him, nearly bowling him over with their enthusiastic hugs. Sam stands awkwardly to the side, silently watching the proceedings.

"Thank god you're all right," Josh says when he catches his breath. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Just a few bruises, but we can walk," Beth reassures him. "Who's that?" she asks, glancing behind him at Sam. The rifle-wielding blonde raises her hand in awkward greeting.

"Beth, Hannah, this is Sam," Josh says, stepping back and gesturing at Sam. "Sam, these are my sisters."

"Hi," Hannah greets timidly, adjusting her glasses.

"Hi," Sam returns in a marginally pleasant tone of voice, and Josh frowns at her. "We've got to go," she says, ignoring him.

"The Not- _Rex_  didn't follow you, did it?" Beth pipes up. When Sam just stares blankly at her, she clarifies, "The big white  _T-Rex_ -looking thing."

"The  _Indominus Rex_ ," Josh corrects her.

"The  _Indo_ -whatnow?" Beth questions, her face lighting up in a suppressed grin.

"It wasn't my idea," he says defensively, but before he can say any more, a rumbling roar sounds just outside the garage. All three of the Washington siblings freeze in terror, eyes wide and breathing quickening. Sam leaps into action, shoving them behind the car nearest the door. She clutches her rifle in her hands, but Josh knows that it's not going to do shit to the  _Indominus_.

 _Thud, thud_ goes the  _Indominus Rex_ 's clawed feet against the ground, crushing plants and flattening soil. Her snout squeezes into the tiny gap between the cars, angrily shoving the other car away when the tiny space won't give. The twins close their eyes, forcing themselves to be quiet, and, after a nanosecond of  _What'll the girls think?_ Josh decides his fragile masculinity is a load of shit and closes his eyes too, clenching his teeth so he won't make a sound.

After an agonizing few minutes, the  _Indominus_ withdraws her snout and walks away, and they all release sighs of relief.

Only to have the  _Indominus Rex_ crashing through the roof with enraged snarls escaping those deadly teeth. Hannah screams, Beth swears, Josh shushes them, and Sam shoves all three of them through the door where the twins had made their appearance, racing through the old park's ruins and outside the doors. Behind them, they can hear the  _Indominus_ 's enraged bellows, until something cuts her off, but none of them care, because they need to run, run, run. Josh pulls out his phone with some difficulty and calls Chris.

"Chris, we've found her," he says, trying to speak clearly and run quickly at the same time. "South of Gyrosphere Valley, between the old park and the Aviary!"

" _Wait, are you **following** the **Indominus**?_ " Chris says incredulously.

"Yes! Get ACU out here! Real guns this time!"

" _ACU is airborne! They took the helicopter!_ "

Josh slides to a halt. "Who's flying it!?" he demands, but the ear-piercing whirring of helicopter blades slices into the air, drowning out Chris's answer. The helicopter passes over their heads, and faintly, they can hear the sound of the _Indominus_  roaring. Muscles weary, they keep on running, following the helicopter, until they reach a cliff, where they have a clear view of the Aviary, the helicopter, and the  _Indominus Rex_. They watch as the _Indominus_ tears easily through the glass walls of the Aviary, the _pterosaurs_ swarming out like a cloud of starlings. They watch, Hannah and Beth clinging to Josh with horror in their eyes, as the _pterosaurs_ attack the helicopter, and it goes crashing down. The explosion rattles their bones and they stagger backwards, in shock, while the  _pterosaurs_ head straight for them.

* * *

After running a fucking marathon from the  _pterosaurs_ , they finally arrive at the park, and it's total chaos. Screaming flocks of people push against them, and Hannah finds herself and Beth separated from Sam and Josh. They wind through the pandemonium, calling Josh's name, and then a giant fucking _pterosaur_ decides that _they're_ going to be its next meal. So, on top of trying to find their brother and his super-hot friend, they now have to escape the clutches of a very hungry technically-not-a-dinosaur-according-to-Beth.

Hannah reaches up a hand to keep her glasses from falling, trying to keep up with Beth's adrenaline-infused mad sprinting. Her muscles are aching and throbbing, and she lets herself be blindly led through the streets, Beth's hand clutching her arm in a bruising grip. She barely registers Matt appearing before them, Matt running beside them, and then they stumble and fall, all three of them trying to scramble backwards as the _pterosaur_ falls with them, sliding towards them. She can barely hear Matt screaming and Beth swearing over the pounding of her blood in her ears as they scramble backwards, trying to avoid the _pterosaur_ 's deadly beak.

Then she hears Josh yelling their names and she looks up, just in time to see Sam with him, Sam shooting at the _pterosaurs_ , and then one of them dives towards her, knocking her on her back. Hannah can't muster the strength to cover her eyes, but she doesn't need to, because Josh grabs a tranquilizer gun, knocks the _pterosaur_ off Sam, and shoots it. The look of surprise on Sam's face is evident even from this distance as Josh pulls her up. Sam says something Hannah can't hear, but she watches in amazement as the blonde woman grabs Josh around the neck and presses her lips to Josh's, and the first thing Hannah thinks is that she can't wait to tell Mom and Dad.

Josh pulls away, staring at Sam with something close to longing adoration, and then he looks past her, meeting Hannah's gaze. He doesn't even turn red as he runs towards her, Beth, and Matt, apparently overwhelmed by the fact that they're safe.

That's fine, Hannah can tease him about it later.

* * *

"Chris," Josh says, exhaustion in his voice as he tries to gather his thoughts well enough to speak into the phone, "I'm on my way back to you."

" _That's a bad idea,_ " the phone crackles. " _The Board assigned emergency ops to InGen's private security division, and this guy, Hoskins, he's in charge._ " Josh swears, but Chris isn't finished being the bearer of bad news. " _He's got this plan to use the raptors to hunt down the **Indominus**._ "

"What do you mean, ' _use the raptors_ '?" Josh demands.

"Son of a bitch!" Sam snarls, scaring the shit out of Josh for about the millionth time that day.

"What's up with _you_?" he demands, but Sam's already shoving them into a car lying unattended on the streets. Before Josh can ask demand—yet again—what the hell she's doing, the ominous rumble of footsteps just behind the doors explains everything. Lightning quick, Sam's in the driver's seat, Josh sitting next to her, and the twins plus Matt in the back.

"Drive! Drive!" Josh screeches, clutching the seat.

"I am!" Sam replies angrily, driving backwards just as the doors slam open and hundreds of people flood the street. Sam manages to maneuver them to the side, away from the rush of panic and fear, and all five of them take a moment to recover.

"This does not feel safe," Matt pipes up, looking terrified.

"Can we stay with you?" Hannah asks timidly.

"I am never leaving you as long as you live," Josh says, slumping backwards.

"No, no, no, with her," Beth corrects, pointing to Sam. The few moments of silence gives Josh time to reflect on how big of a lesbian Bethany Washington is and that he should have seen this coming.

"Yeah, definitely her," Hannah adds.

Hannah, _no_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as u can see the washington twins did Not fix a 22-year-old car
> 
> the next chapter is half-written but i am tired and losing motivation please send me help and candy canes
> 
> also, about the probably-one-sided-but-you-never-know sath and sannah? that was literally not meant to happen. these stories have a mind of their own.
> 
> my tumblr is wendigowolfie


	10. jaysus fecking crust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (alan grant screaming in the distance)

The car rolls up before Mike can come to a decision about whether or not punching Hoskins in the face is worth going to jail.

He watches with unrestrained surprise as Sam steps out, followed by a Josh Washington who has torn pants and a damaged shirt which he pulls off himself. Hoskins stands up from his place in front of Delta's snout with a pleased grin on his face.

"Well, well, the mother hen has finally arrived," Hoskins chuckles, and then staggers back as Sam punches him. Mike resists the urge to clap his hands at the sight of the nasty bruise on Hoskins's lower jaw. He wishes he could have been the one to throw that punch, but he figures Sam deserves the honor of finally punching Hoskins.

"Get the hell away from my raptors," Sam growls, her other hand on her rifle.

"Hoskins, you wanted this to happen, didn't you, you fucking asshole?" Josh snarls, looming ominously over Hoskins. The big bad Park Operations Manager and the scary  _Velociraptor_ trainer teaming up is enough to make anyone with a sense of reason shy away, but as they all know, Hoskins is not a sensible person. Sure, he cowers a little, maybe that smug smile trembles, but he straightens up and scowls.

"Oh, please, how many more people have to die before all of this starts to make sense to you?" he barks. "Okay, this is an InGen situation now! There's gonna be cruise ships coming here at first light, everybody's gonna get off this goddamn island, and you're gonna watch a news story tomorrow about how you all saved lives! No, no, better yet . . ." Hoskins employs the most overused special effect that villains can use: the dramatic pause, ". . . how your  _animals_ saved lives."

"They've never been out of containment," Sam protests, glancing at Mike as he makes his way to her side. "This is fucking insane!"

"Let's move it out!" someone calls. Mike clenches his hands into fists.

"This is happening!" Hoskins says, gesturing at the speaker. "With or without you!"

Mike sees a flash of indecision on Sam's face. She glances at him, and he backs away. It's up to her. It's her choice.

And she makes it.

* * *

"Easy, Blue," Sam says soothingly, running a hand over the nervous raptor's scales. "Easy, there. Good girl." She frowns, rubbing the top of the raptor's head, hoping that she'll live through this.

"Sam!"

She turns around at the sound of Beth's awestruck voice, finding the beanie-wearing girl and her twin watching her with glee from the relative safety of outside the cage. Sam smiles and gives Blue a final pat before moving towards the twins.

"Are they safe?" Beth asks.

"No, they're not," she answers nonchalantly.

"What are their names?" Beth persists, and Hannah lays a hand on her arm with a "you-stop-that" glance. Sam grins at her, and she returns the grin awkwardly.

"Well, that's Charlie," she says, pointing her out, "That's Echo, there's Delta, and"—she stops at the raptor with a blue stripe running down either side—"this one's called Blue," she concludes. "She's the beta."

"Who's the alpha?" Hannah pipes up shyly.

Sam grins, amused, and says, "You're looking at her, kid."

* * *

Hannah's in love, she's pretty sure, as Josh leads her, Beth, and Matt towards a truck. She manages to give him a frown at where they'll be staying, and he gives her a halfhearted shrug.

"C'mon," he says encouragingly, "it's perfectly safe!" He pats her shoulder reassuringly, then tightens his grip, trying to use his measly strength to shove all three of them into the truck. "All right, get in, come on!" he huffs, and they finally acquiesce, Matt grumbling about how he's not paid enough for this. "See? Safe!" Josh insists, then disappears, closing the doors.

"If you need me," he calls from the front, "I'm right here. Just open the window. All right?"

There's a hopeful tapping on the closed window.

"All right?"

"Yes, Josh," Beth grumbles.

"Great! Put your seatbelts on."

" _What_ seatbelts?" Beth complains.

"Oh. Uh. Just hold hands, then, okay?"

They slump against the truck, near the window, with Hannah's head on Beth's shoulder and Matt rooting for his phone. He gives up when it's clear that his phone had been lost in the mayhem, and joins them at a respectful distance. Finally, none of them can take it any longer, and they slide the window open. Josh glances up, gives them a grin, and returns his attention to the tablet-thingy from where he's watching Sam and the raptors.

"Your girlfriend's a badass," Beth pipes up, sounding resentful, and Hannah lets out a sad-sounding sigh of agreement. She can't be certain because his back is turned, but she thinks Josh is blushing.

* * *

 

"They're slowing down," Mike says from nearby, his voice cool and calculated. Sam grimaces, knowing that he's upset about letting the raptors out on a mission where they might not come back alive, but she has no choice. She could only walk away or watch over them, and she chose the latter option.

"They've picked up something," she adds for clarification to the others, slowing down as well. The remaining ACU members file out of their truck, guns at the ready. Sam dismounts her motorcycle, her own rifle in her hands, and walks at a brisk pace after the raptors. Suddenly, they stop in front of a curtain of vines, and she signals the others to halt as well. They huddle behind a fallen tree, guns pointing at the vines, and Sam holds her breath as the  _Indominus Rex_ moves through the vines like a ghost.

And then her heart stops, because the  _Indominus_ chirps at her raptors, and they chirp back.

"Something's wrong," Mike hisses.

"She's part raptor," Sam says, and they can see their terrified expressions on each other's faces.

One by one, Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo turn their heads, staring right at Sam.

" _Engage!_ " Hoskins's voice yells through her walkie-talkie, and bullets start firing straight at the  _Indominus_. The hybrid dinosaur lets out a pained roar, turning back, and Sam sees her fall as an explosion chars the trees. The raptors melt into the darkness, and a chill goes down Sam's spine.

"Watch your six," she says grimly as they move forward. "The raptors got a new alpha."

* * *

 

"Oh my god," Josh breathes out. "Oh my god."

"Let us  _see_ ," Beth whines, forcefully tugging the window open. Hannah and Matt suddenly scream, and Beth whips her head around to find the doors open, a bloodied man trying to get in. Before he can step inside, a  _Velociraptor_ shoots out from the darkness, pulls at his leg, and drags him away.

"Drive!" Beth orders, and hears the truck start up. There's a shocked yell from the front and the screech of a raptor, then a grunt from Josh. Beth jumps as the car moves forward, and she peers through the window to check on Josh. He's alive, but terrified, and he meets Beth's gaze through the mirror.

"Close the doors!" Matt squeaks, overridden by Hannah's, "I found a taser!"

Beth shushes Josh's demands to know what's going on and pulls the taser off the wall of the truck.

"How do you turn it on?" she asks desperately, watching as another raptor chases after the truck. She's nearing the truck, almost _touching_ it. "Turn it on, turn it on, turn it—"

A buzz of electricity, and the raptor freezes her mad scrambling, falling backwards onto the road. Beth surges forth and pulls the doors closed, panting heavily.

"Jesus," she says.

"Fucking," Matt continues.

"Christ," Hannah finishes.

They slump resolutely against the walls of the truck, their shoulders brushing, and breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> w OW boy was this shoddily written I TRIED OK
> 
> my tumblr is wendigowolfie


	11. the raptors fucking live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chrashley is canon, josh loves sam, beth and hannah pine.

"They said we have to go," Ashley says.

Chris spins his chair around, blinking at her as she stands nearby the exit of the control room. It's empty except for her and himself, the monitors still on. Some of the cameras have broken, no doubt by low-flying _pterosaurs_ , but other than that, everything's fine.

"Are you coming?" she asks uncertainly.

He hesitates, then sets his jaw in a fierce grimace, standing up and walking towards her.

"Someone has to stay behind," he says bravely, then leans forward to kiss her.

He meets no resistance, and he wonders why he didn't kiss her before. Her lips taste sweet, and when he pulls away, it leaves him wanting more.

She smiles, a light blush working her way up her cheeks.

"Then I'm staying with you."

* * *

Josh herds his assistant and his sisters out of the truck, ushering them through the eerily empty streets of the park. The rumble of an engine cuts through the still evening air, and Sam appears on a motorcycle, Mike sitting behind her. They both look bruised and battered, but they dismount with their jaws set and eyes hard, leading them all inside. Josh takes point from there, making his way resolutely towards the lab, then stops dead still in shock.

"They . . . they evacuated the lab," he says, troubled. They enter cautiously, but find no dinosaurs within. It's only when Beth lets out a yelp that they tense, but the girl is unharmed, pointing to a slit in the wall. They push it open, Josh in awe and confusion, and move through the secret lair (as dubbed by an annoyed Matt) with great wariness. The electricity is still in working condition, and Beth plops herself in a chair, staring at a computer monitor while biting her lip.

Suddenly, several people file in from another area of the secret lair, shoving things into containers, moving past them as if they're no more than another hologram.

One of them is Vic Hoskins.

"What the hell are you doing?" Josh demands.

"I'm afraid that's above your pay grade, Washington," Hoskins sneers.

"Where's Henry?"

"Dr Wu works for us," Hoskins informs them, delighting in the dismay on their faces.

Beth points at the computer screen. "That's not a real dinosaur," she says.

"No, it ain't, honey," he says, giving her a toothy grin, and she shrinks backwards. Sam puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But somebody's gotta make sure this company has a future," Hoskins continues. "Imagine," he says, pointing at the hybrid dinosaur on the screen, "that one, a fraction of the size . . . deadly, intelligent . . . able to hide from the most advanced military technology. A living weapon unlike anything we've ever seen! You see, millions of evolution, and what did we learn?"

 _Abso-fucking-lutely nothing_ , Josh thinks.

"Nature is the gift that just— oh, shit!"

Suddenly, Delta appears, staring intently at Hoskins as she advances on him. He backs away, and she pins him to the wall with her gaze and the threat of her deadly fangs and claws.

"Easy," Hoskins says frantically, "easy, boy."

Josh sees Mike flinch. A few moments later, as Hoskins stretches out a hand to touch Delta's snout, the raptor's jaws envelope his arm, and Hoskins screams. They flee from the lab, Josh and Sam running ahead, and as Josh passes a machine, he pushes a button, and a hologram of a dilophosaurus appears behind him. He doesn't stop to check if anything happens, busy as he is with living, but four raptors suddenly appear in the darkness as they exit the doors, surrounding them with sickle claws and reptilian eyes glaring balefully at them.

Blue stands in front of Sam, cocking her head to the side.

"Easy, girl," Sam coos. "Easy, love." She coos some more phrases in French, lifting his hand to brush against the side of Blue's jaw. The  _Velociraptor_ does nothing, just stands there, watching and waiting, and not even reacting as Sam removes the camera from her head. Sam withdraws her hand, letting the camera drop to the ground, and smiles. "That's it, girl. That's my girl."

Josh can feel the joy emanating from Sam, and his heart lifts with it. But the sight of the  _Indominus Rex_ striding towards them with hunger in her eyes strikes fear and terror into him, and he clutches the twins' hands. The  _Indominus_ lets out a series of grunts and chirps, Blue communicating with her, and then, without warning, the beta of Sam's raptor pack leaps towards the  _Indominus_ , trying to force her teeth through the hybrid monster's scales. Without a moment's hesitation, the other three raptors attack as well, and the  _Indominus_ roars, betrayal and rage reverberating in her angry scream.

In the chaos, Josh ushers Matt and the twins into a deserted gift stand, taking cover inside it. He can see Sam and Mike hiding behind a sculpture of a mosquito inside a piece of amber if he takes a quick, risky peek, but he decides not to do this more than once.

"We need more," Beth says suddenly.

"More what?" Josh says in exasperation.

"More teeth. We need more teeth."

Josh stops. He stares to one side of the gift stand's walls, noticing a walkie-talkie and a flare strapped to it. He pulls himself off the ground and grabs both items, then turns to stare at the twins and Matt.

"Okay, so you just . . . stay right here. I'll be back."

He jumps out of the gift stand, recklessly running past the  _Indominus_ vs four  _Velociraptors_ fight and towards the  _T-Rex_ paddock. He switches on the walkie-talkie.

"Chris? Ashley? Are you still there?"

" _Hey! Where are you?_ " Chris's voice crackles through the speakers, along with Ashley's, " _What do you need?_ "

"I need you to open Paddock 9 for me."

" _Paddock 9?_ " Chris says incredulously. " _Are you kidding me?_ "

"Damn it, Christopher Beale, if you're not going to take Ashley to the bone zone, you might as well do something else that's even remotely brave!"

" _You had to make it personal. I'll have you know I kissed her a few minutes ago!_ "

"Great! Now open the goddamn paddock!"

The door slowly lifts open, and Josh ignites the flare, holding it away from his body. The huge shape of the  _Tyrannosaurus Rex_ looms in front of him. He, Josh Washington, in his scratched and torn lavender undershirt and muddy pants, stares down a 25-year-old  _Tyrannosaurus Rex_ , her deadly teeth flashing yellow in the flare's light.

And then he runs like a bat out of hell.

He can tell the  _T-Rex_ is following him from the heavy thuds just behind him, and pure fear and adrenaline makes his legs move faster and faster. His brain is screaming how this completely goes against every instinct of self-preservation that has been roaring inside his head ever since he saw the scratches on the wall of the  _Indominus_ 's paddock. He finally reaches the battle between three tiny dinosaurs and one really big dinosaur. Blue is missing, but Josh doesn't really care yet. He throws the flare at the  _Indominus_ 's neck, and resists the urge to scream when the monstrous dinosaur roars in indignation. The  _T-Rex_ 's tail sweeps towards him, hitting his stomach and knocking the wind right out of him. He's suddenly aware that Beth, Hannah, and Matt are with Sam and Mike and dimly remembers telling them to  _stay put_. He rejoins them, anyway.

The  _Indominus_ is clearly outnumbered, but she fights like a demon from hell, finally injuring Delta and Echo, leaving them limping and unable to battle any longer. Charlie fights bravely, but as the _Indominus_ throws her off her back, she lets out a screech as her full weight lands on her leg, unbroken, but still painful. Blue is nowhere to be found.

The  _T-Rex_ is fighting for her life, her old bones having trouble keeping up with the  _Indominus_ 's young, sturdy body. The  _Indominus_ throws her to the ground, pinning her down with her hind leg, and lets out a triumphant roar. She opens her jaws, positioning herself above the  _T-Rex_ 's neck, and—

_Blue._

The cerulean-striped raptor, Sam's beloved beta, sprints down the street, long claw marks on her flanks. She leaps onto an abandoned car and uses it as a spring, jumping at the  _Indominus_ 's neck and giving the  _T-Rex_ enough time to recover from the assault. The  _T-Rex_ batters the  _Indominus_ with punishing blows while Blue distracts her, scrabbling onto her back and jumping around like an annoying flea. The _T-Rex_ charges at the _Indominus_ and she crashes through the glass of the _Mosasaurus_ tank, almost falling in. Blue jumps off in time, standing beside the  _T-Rex_ and staring the  _Indominus_ in the eye. The  _Indominus_ gets to her feet, roars, and then screams as the  _Mosasaurus_ 's jaws close around her neck and drag her into the depths of the tank, drowning slowly but surely.

 _T-Rex_ and  _Velociraptor_ regard each other warily, and then the  _T-Rex_ strides off, leaving Blue to herd her pack towards Sam. The raptors stare expectantly at Sam, hoping for an order, or a treat, and Sam shakes her head slightly. Blue barks, and runs down the street, the rest of the raptors following her. Sam sits down on the ground heavily, wearily resting her head on her knees. Josh decides that's a good idea, and leans against her as he waits for the sun to rise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they're alive. fuck you, movie.
> 
> one more to go!!
> 
> my tumblr is wendigowolfie


	12. the end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> josh is good at ruining moments

When they're found, they're immediately sent off to have their bruises treated and bandaged up, informed that their families will soon be arriving. Chris and Ashley are probably making out in a corner. Sam is whisked away by her mother, to fuss over her wounds and to tell her never to work with dinosaurs again. Mike's younger brother appears, clapping him on the back and apologizing that neither of their parents could come. Matt's fiance, Emily, a girl who pushes aside security guards and tells off nurses just to see her soon-to-be-husband, grumbles angrily (but lovingly) under her breath as she inspects Matt's wounds. A girl named Jessica is taken aside by her worried older sister, informing her that their parents are worried sick and that they should go home, right now, immediately.

Josh and the twins don't see their parents yet. Hannah and Beth have their arms around each other, sitting on benches while Josh watches over them. Eventually, his gaze slides from the twins to Sam, conversing with her mother. There, she's just a daughter trying to assure her mother that she's an adult now, that she can take care of herself. (he doesn't doubt that, nor does he doubt that she'll kick his ass if he mentions his thoughts to her) She doesn't seem like the girl who used to have raptors consider her their leader, the girl who shoots down  _pterosaurs_ and faces  _Indominus Rexes_ head-on, who annoys Park Operations Managers to get her own way. But he damn well knows that she is, and that she'll do it again if she has to.

Particularly the last one.

 _Especially_ the last one.

"Mom! Dad!" Beth suddenly cries out, standing up and accidentally pulling Hannah up with her. Hannah groans and tiredly tries to keep on her feet as the Washingtons flit around them like agitated butterflies. Eventually, they notice Josh standing awkwardly to the side, and Mrs Washington moves forward to pull him into a hug. She doesn't speak when she pulls away, just awkwardly returns her attention to the twins, but Josh feels lighter, somehow.

Then Sam is there, walking towards him. She looks determined, and for a moment he wonders if she's going to beat him up, because that look on her face is the exact same expression she had when she punched Hoskins. Instead, she just hugs him.

Fucking hugs him.

What the fuck.

"Um, thanks?"

"Shut up, asshole, and just let the moment pass."

Unfortunately, her words come far too late, because the moment is feeling very awkward and very ruined.

"I hate you," she grumbles.

"Love you too," he replies cheekily. "Are we going on that second date now?"

She rolls her eyes, pulling away. "Let me sleep for a whole day first, then we can talk."

* * *

The next few weeks are hectic. The only reason Josh isn't in jail by now is because of a very good, very expensive lawyer, Matt's brilliant assistant skills, and his own ability to intimidate everyone he meets. Well,  _mostly_ everyone. There's one ex- _Velociraptor_ trainer who intimidates  _him_. Josh gets off innocent of all charges, and the media shifts its focus on Dr Wu's whereabouts. Josh, on the other hand, would very much like to  _not_ worry about that. He would like to curl up in front of a television with his girlfriend and pretend the park never existed in the first place.

Of course, sometimes, he'd like to  _not_ curl up with his girlfriend. She's developed the habit of flirting with Beth and Hannah whenever they come over, and while Josh isn't going to be annoyingly jealous, it's aggravating when the twins play along as well, so he's stuck with three assholes mockingly flirting with each other.

_Without him._

The horror.

Needless to say, Sam and Josh finally have their second date. And their third one, and their fourth one, and so on and so on until Josh isn't counting anymore and Sam's just dragging him off to zoos and protected parks all over the world and declaring them "dates." They're more like dangerous adventures into mosquito-infested jungles and leopard-inhabited savannahs, but Josh goes along with it, mainly because he doesn't have much of a choice.

(Sam once got into a fucking lion enclosure. Apparently she's allowed to do that, but the miniature heart attack Josh had forced her to agree that she should probably warn him next time.)

With Jurassic World firmly in the past, Josh can finally live a normal life.

Well, as normal as it gets with Samantha Leroy for a girlfriend.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're done and i'm tired good night
> 
> (falls down)
> 
> i have a partial roleswap au fic that's coming up soon, it's gonna be great, and if i fail at making it great, feel free to punch me.
> 
> my tumblr is wendigowolfie


End file.
